Running_Bare's blog post

And so I was watching a program on TV about a rural school in Uganda where the school was totally dependant on the payment of school fees to fund improvements and pay teachers. You see, in Uganda, primary education is free, funded by the state, but secondary education is not. It turns out that the monthly school fees were equal to two weeks wages of an average Ugandan, so as you can imagine default rates were very high. The headmistress decides to take action and locks the gates of the school to all except those up to date with their payments. To cut a long story short, one of the boys aged 13 was in arrears and it turns out that he was an aids orphan, and was the head of the household, caring for 4 younger siblings. After school he would work in his little business charging batteries for the villagers, and from this business he would clothe and feed himself and his siblings, and then with what was left, try and pay his school fees so that he could get an education and provide a better for his "family".

I then read an article about Wayne Rooney, and his ilk. For those of you who don't know who he is, he is an English footballer and currently plays for Manchester United, although reports suggest that he is looking for more money so is preparing to move to whoever will pay him more. Shit, he currently earns in the region of 200k sterling a week!!! How much more money does he need, and whats more, why the fuck does he feel he doesn't have to behave himself??

Is it just me, or are there others who think there is something serious wrong with the chasm between these two humans I have mentioned? My peers call me a communist, I don't think I am. I think I am more a humanist, and I just wonder when enough is enough?

Why is it that we go to our 25 year reunions and we meet Joe Blogs again after 25 years and he is a big business man, with a Rolls Royce parked outside, and the we meet Fred Smith, who after 25 years is a plumber working for the local council. We consider Joe to be hugely successful, and Fred to have under achieved, but in real life Joe, beats his wife, sexually abuses his daughter and Fred has a strong loving family unit. As a society we have come to measure a person's worth not by how they make fellow humans feel after an interaction, but by how many material possessions they own. Makes me sad..... Where has our humanity gone?

Ok... feeling a bit better now that I have that off my chest!